Meanwhile . . .

Legislation that would have added a surcharge to rental car rates to help upgrade the state’s trauma care network essentially died Thursday. State Sen. Cecil Staton, R-Macon, made a late push this week to tack the 3.5 percent tax onto rental car charges, but the House stripped that out of the bill it was attached to.In fact, the House removed all of the tax and revenue tack-ons the Senate added to various House tax bills because, constitutionally, revenue bills are supposed to originate in the House. Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson, R-Hiram, has been insistent on that point this session.